While their equipment is in the area, they would like to make best use of it and help to restore more grasslands using green hay.
There should be a mower, baler and straw chopper in operation. There will be no harrowing provided, that would need organising through a contractor unless you have your own.
If you have a species-rich meadow and would like your own green hay transferred to an adjacent field and have DWT do some of the work and spreading of hay for you, they can offer this service (for a fee unless you are in the Dart catchment where it can be funded through the Upstream Thinking Project – see the Map below for the catchment area, it covers a large portion of Dartmoor). Each case will be different however so will need firming up with DWT beforehand.
Also, if you have a species poor site and would like help restoring it - prepping the site then spreading the green hay - DWT maybe able to help you and match you to a suitable donor site.
DWT will be looking for species-rich grasslands on Dartmoor to act as green hay donors to carry out this additional work. If you have a meadow, would you be interested in donating or selling the bales, or a portion of them, to help restore species diversity to other suitable meadow sites nearby? Green hay needs to be harvested and spread quickly as it heats up easily and the seeds can end up being composted. Hence the need for the donor site to be close by.
For more information email Simon Tomasso: stomasso@devonwildlifetrust.org